Greg, I do believe the U.S. (and the West in genreal) suffers from the legacies of our imperialistic days in the sense that we have a strong tendency to offshore much of our risks to other places. It’s a sort-of out of sight, out of mind mentality that allows American companies to hide some of the true costs of doing business, be they in the form of unknown risks or well-understood but unpleasant side effects of industrial processes. As it happens, many Third World countries have lax or nonexistent environmental regulations that allow us to dispose of waste or employ processes that would not be allowed in this country. A great example is the vast amount of electronic waste (old computers, cell phones, TVs, etc.) that get sent to companies in China for final disposal. These companies, in turn, pay employees a pittance to remove all of the toxic substances (at significant personal health risk) that go into the original manufacture of the items. It’s a systemic problem that’s been around fro many year and which shows no signs of abating. If anything, as the U.S. continues to strengthen its environmental regulations, such offshoring is likely to increase.